Militant in Daniel Pearl Case Arrested

LAHORE, Pakistan – Pakistani police arrested two suspected Islamic militants in separate raids Friday, including a man wanted in connection with the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (search), an official said.

Pearl was kidnapped Jan. 23, 2002, in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi (search) while working on a story on Islamic militancy, and was later killed in captivity.

Malik Tasaddaq, 28, was arrested in the eastern province of Punjab on suspicion of involvement in Pearl's killing, the province's police chief Saadatullah Khan said in a statement that didn't elaborate.

Tasaddaq and Nadir Khan, who was detained in a separate raid in Punjab, allegedly belong to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (search), an outlawed Sunni Muslim group blamed for attacks on minority Shiites, Westerners and the government, the statement said.

Khan, 30, was wanted for his alleged role in the killing of a police official and a Shiite Muslim leader.

Four Islamic militants have been convicted of kidnapping Pearl, but seven other suspects — including those who allegedly slit his throat in front of a video camera — remain at large.

In August 2001, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which was linked to the Taliban militia in Afghanistan, in a crackdown aimed at eliminating religious extremism in the country.